Italian magazine editor Alfonso Signorini published topless Catherine Middleton images to "satisfy curiosity".

French magazine Closer was hit with a lawsuit last week following printing topless images of Catherine as she sunbathed on a private balcony in Provence with her husband Prince William.

Alfonso published a 26-page spread in Chi magazine on Monday on the royal couple's intimate vacation.

Alfonso is not at all scared about the legal ramifications of publishing the photos in Italy.

"I am a director of a newspaper not a supermarket, I don't sell artichokes and carrots, I sell photographic scoops," he told Sky News.

"If I had not published them I would not be paid for the job I do. Above all, I published them for various reasons, as a journalistic scoop, it satisfies the curiosity of the readers, it is first time that the future Queen of England has been pictured in such a way.

"Lastly, they were taken on a public road by photographers on public land. The Duchess was sunbathing on a terrace, sadly for her.

"The Italian privacy laws say that we can quite happily take pictures from a public road, of personalities, exposed places, in open air."